The 17th EPIEM (European Professors of Industrial Engineering and Management) Conference in October 2024 was organised and hosted by the Department of Information Engineering and Computer Science, the Department of Industrial Engineering, and Department of Economics and Management at the University of Trento. The conference aimed to bring together enthusiastic operations management, industrial engineering, and management scholars (e.g., professors, instructors, lecturers, researchers at all levels, PhD students, and postdocs) and practitioners from the CEE region. Thus, the 17th EPIEM Conference offered participants a good opportunity to present their research findings as well as their teaching and practical experience, exchange information, discuss current issues, and publish their work in the EPIEM conference proceedings (30th BWL Publication Series). Although the focus of this conference was placed on the central theme of “Artificial Intelligence in Operations and Supply Chain Management, Industrial Engineering and Management”, and the related challenges, for example, sustainability, circular economy, ethics, and innovation, all papers from major areas in the management, business economics, and industrial engineering fields – theoretical or empirical with a strong link to technology management/techno-economics – were highly encouraged. A specific attention was given to opportunities and challenges in CEE region.